Most Missouri counties caucused last weekend, but Jackson County and St. Louis decided to move their caucuses to Saturday. One reason is both communities put on popular St. Patrick’s Day parades.
It turns out that I was supposed to be in that line, pictured above, by 10:00 a.m. sharp, in order to get in. I was on schedule to get there on time, but a pick-up truck cut in front of me, and decided to just putter slowly along near an intersection on the way to the venue, and you guessed it – the green light I should have made turned red. So.
And then there was the unfortunate parking situation. (No spaces left!) Diagonal lines in a parking lot mean no parking except in desperate circumstances, right? Coppers everywhere + me parking in a dicey spot + me with an upset stomach and no bathrooms around = me not sticking around too long.
According to blogger Lorien Johnson,(a Paulite), there were approx 300 people in line by 8:10 a.m.
By 9:19 a.m. they were up to 640 attendees.
You know who gets there two hours early to wait in line that long for these things? Fanatics. The place was swarming with Ron Paul supporters. I mentioned to a couple of other Santorum supporters, who were also too late to get in, it looked to me like Ron Paul was being over-represented at this caucus. I don’t look forward to hearing the results of this thing, at all.
Anyway, for those who are interested, Johnson, ahem - ” libertarian constitutionalist influenced by Hayek and Burke” who “thinks as an anarchist guided by the biblical principles of liberty” is live-blogging the Caucus from inside.
01:56 PM CST — @TracyWardForKC says: “Now voting on proportional slates out winner take all. This crowd is getting antsy.”
01:55 PM CST — Sounds like all of the campaigns are angling at the moment. No substantive news.
01:35 PM CST — Analysis from a Platte County resident and caucus organizer, Darrel Drumright: Each district has it’s own convention. If you live in the 5th district you would be nominated for delegate to the 5th district convention. If you lived in the 6th district you would vote for delegates to the 6th district convention. They should make a motion to vote on the stage convention delegates first and then divide by district. The caucus today votes for delegates for three different conventions. The 5th district convention, the 6th district convention and the MO state convention. All three send delegates to national.
01:29 PM CST — Some people are so angry that delegates might be divided that they are leaving.
01:21 PM CST — Mark Seitman (sp?) motions to amend rules to divide into 5th and 6th districts instead of voting as county.
01:15 PM CST — Rules Committee now reporting.
01:13 PM CST — All singing God Bless America while waiting for Rules Cmte.
01:08 PM CST — Motion made and passed to suspend the reading of the call to convention to save time.
01:05 PM CST — Munyan elected Secretary, 587 to Finch’s 281. Munyan is a GOP Committeeman and local attorney. Very honorable reputation, and I have met him and heard him speak. Good choice.
UPDATE:
According to Lorien Johnson:
CONFIRMED:
Paul wins majority of delegates in Jackson County, Missouri. Paul 80% Romney 20%!
I could tell that Paulbots had flooded the zone. It was a lost cause.
Who’s the genius who decided Missouri needed to go to a Caucus?
UPDATE II:
Ron Paul supporters dominated in St. Louis, as well.
Star Parker, president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and speaker at today’s event in DC, explained the untenable choice the mandate forces non-exempt religious employers to make: “Bow your knee, pay a fine, or close your business.”
Congressman Joe Walsh was on fire at the Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally at the Federal Plaza in Chicago:
Walsh addressed an audience of 2500 individuals about preparing to go to jail while defending our religious freedom, which is clearly violated by Barack Hussein Obama’s heinously criminal, unconstitutional HHS Mandate!
At the Kansas City rally, a gentleman from Life Front, gave a rousing speech, quoting Patrick Henry: “237 years ago today – March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke these words”:
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally, Howell, MI – AFLC’s Robert Muise Speech:
AFLC Co-Founder & Senior Counsel Robert Muise was honored to give a speech at the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally at the county courthouse in Howell, Michigan on March 23, 2012. He discussed Obama’s attack on religious freedom and the legal action AFLC is taking to stop it.
Fr. John Speech at Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally, Winston-Salem, NC:
Michele Wetteland Inspired Attendees Of The Fort Worth Religious Freedom Rally:
Orlando Stand Up for Religious Freedom – Liberty Counsel:
Pastor and lawyer for Liberty Counsel speaks at the “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally March 23, 2012 outside the U.S. courthouse in downtown Orlando.
Religious Freedom Rally Phoenix-Dr. & Reverend C.T. Wright:
Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally – Flint, MI, 3/23/11:
Stand Up For Religious Freedom – Nashville Rally – Dr. Richard Land:
Stand Up For Religious Freedom, Buffalo:
About 1,000 people rallied in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Buffalo on Mar. 23, 2012, supporting religious freedom and opposing the HHS mandate. In this video, Cheryl Calire, director of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., reads a statement on behalf of Bishop Edward U. Kmiec.
Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally In Pittsburgh, PA:
http://www.40daysforlife.com 40 Days for Life national director David Bereit speaks to the Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally in Pittsburgh, PA, challenging the large crowd to stand up against the Obama administration’s egregious HHS Mandate.
You can count Dick Morris among the growing number of Americans horrified by the increasingly brazen behavior of the President.
In this Dick Morris Lunch Alert, he delved into some alarming developments which are not receiving much attention in the MSM. The National Defense Authorization Act, passed on New Years Day, gives the government the power to detain American citizens, indefinitely and without trial. No other President has ever had that power, Morris claims. And it turns out that although the Obama administration pretended not to want it, Carl Levin told reporters after it passed that White House negotiators had insisted on the provision.
Why the subterfuge?
In the March 16 Executive Order, Obama gave himself the right to take over all of the energy industry, (oil, coal, natural gas, electricity) and to initiate a draft, unilaterally, without consent of congress not only in times of war, but during peacetime. An unprecedented, breathtaking power grab, he says.
If oil prices continue to go up, Morris suspects Obama will try to take over the oil industry – nationalize it, which he says will be the day we become a Socialistic dictatorship. Morris thinks Obama is more dangerous than ever because he understands he’s not going to get reelected and now has a scorched earth policy towards this country:
The two columns Dick Morris alluded to in the video:
The far reaching order authorizes the president “in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements.”
Likely the president already has most of the enumerated powers as part of his role as commander in chief. So, why the order right now?
Black speculates that it is related to the tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. Is the president reminding big oil that he would take over their industry in the event of war? Or is Obama equipping himself with vast powers to be used even in peacetime as a result of whatever he decides is a “national emergency.” Could the rise in gas prices constitute such an “emergency?” Is the issuance of this order right now a shot across the bow of oil companies to get them to go easy on oil prices? Where are we? Stalinist Russia?
In any case, these two presidential signatures – one on a law and the other on an order – together constitute a massive power grab totally unsuited to a democracy. The idea that he would be preparing to assume dictatorial powers seems so remote that the mainstream media has not even reported on these initiatives. But they should give all of us pause.
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are increasingly moving to strip America of vital defense capabilities through a web of international treaties and agreements. Already, Clinton is negotiating a code of conduct in outer space that would effectively ban our capacity to destroy satellites and put interceptor missiles in space.
Last week, the president announced that he was going to provide the Russians with detailed technical information about the anti-missile systems he plans to base in Eastern Europe, in the hopes of lessening Russian opposition to their deployment. He is exacting no reciprocal sharing of intelligence, nor can he be sure that Vladimir Putin will not just turn around and forward the gift package to North Korea or Iran.
Reuters noted that “the Obama administration is leaving open the possibility of giving Moscow certain secret data on U.S. interceptor missiles due to help protect Europe from any Iranian missile strike. A deal is being sought by Washington that could include classified data exchange because it is in the U.S. interest to enlist Russia and its radar stations in the missile-defense effort, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Tuesday.”
Read the whole piece. Morris’ conclusion, (he wasn’t kidding about “scorched earth”):
Sometimes I wonder if Obama knows he is going to be defeated and is embarking on a “scorched-earth” policy to weaken our nation and to hogtie us through international agreements before he leaves office, thus fulfilling the fondest desires of his friends like former terrorist Bill Ayers.
I know we have been assured by many pundits on our own side that these power grabs don’t really represent a startling deviation from the way Presidents have always handled these matters.
We are concerned and even, dare I say it, panicked, because we can see the big picture of the Obama regime for what it is. We can take the totality of the dataset and draw not just a logical, reasoned conclusion, but a conclusion that is supported by centuries – nay millenia – of past precedent. We are, as Patrick Henry put it, “willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
Why is the 3/16/2012 Executive Order worthy of grave concern? Simply put, because of the man and the regime who issued it. This is a man, and a regime that has done the following:
-Sent the Secretary of Defense (Leon Panetta) to Congress to put them on notice that despite the explicitness of the Constitution, the consent of the Congress to wage war will neither be solicited nor required by the Commander in Chief or his regime. The CiC and SECDEF may, if they feel like it and can find the time, MAY inform the Congress of “kinetic military actions” henceforth.
-Declared the First Amendment null and void by mandating that every American must, as a condition of legal residency in the United States, pay for abortions. Mr. Morrissey, being a Catholic, you should understand that what the Obama regime has done is demand your very soul. In order to remain corporeally “free” in the United States of America, you must enter into mortal sin, reject Jesus Christ in totality, turn your back on your Crucified Savior, excommunicate yourself from the Church, and consign your immortal soul to eternal hell. If that isn’t the prohibiting of the free exercise of religion, then nothing is or ever could be.
-Committed acts of war upon the sovereign nation of Mexico and her people, willfully arming narco-terrorists with the intent of using the optics of hundreds if not thousands of brutally murdered Mexicans in order to stir up and justify the overthrow of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. This is textbook sedition.
-Has coordinated with regime cronies in the Legislative Branch to enable the Obama regime to operate for an entire term WITH NO BUDGET WHATSOEVER. In this time, the Obama regime has looted the United States Treasury and debased the currency of the United States to the tune of SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS, or roughly one-half the gross domestic product.
This is just a very, very, very short list. Additionally, with each passing day it is being further revealed that EVERY SINGLE PERSON Barack Obama has ever associated with has been not merely a Marxist, not merely a Socialist, not merely a Communist, but a TOTALITARIAN hellbent on the destruction of the United States of America.
I’ll concede the point that if this Executive Order was issued by – get this – Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton, I could buy the idea that it was merely an emergency protocol housekeeping item of some sort geared toward the reaction of the Federal Government after a nuclear attack. I’d be skeptical, but I would be open to the argument.
Not so now. These people are totalitarian tyrants who are no longer even trying to hide their intentions. See the bulleted items above. There comes a point where you have to pull your head out of the sand, synthesize a massive dataset into its obvious, coherent output, and be willing to know the worst, and to provide for it.
